Selling and Buying a Home
Real-life advice for buying and selling a home
Welcome to the Selling and Buying a Home blog.
My name is Leah Ingram, and, together with my husband, I’ve bought and sold eight homes in the past 20 years. One of those homes we built new.
My husband and I are also the DIY type. We’ve renovated nearly every home we’ve owned. This includes upgrading bathrooms, redoing a kitchen down to the studs and painting a home, top to bottom.
In addition to my personal experience as a homeowner, I’m a writer that has covered real estate for national publications.
For more than a decade I wrote about celebrity real estate, home-buying trends, money-saving tips for moving, curb appeal and more for NBC Universal and Parade Magazine.
Now I’m bringing my aspirational but authoritative and approachable take on selling and buying a home to my own blog. I’m going to share with you what works (and what doesn’t ) when selling a home as well as when you’re buying a home.
Rather than telling you what you want to hear, I’m going to tell you what you need to hear if you want to get a good price on a home you’re selling or buying. Basically, I’m going to cut through the BS and give you real-life, attainable advice that’s applicable to both buyers and sellers.
However, this is hardly my only blog. I’ve been covering personal finance for nearly as long as I’ve been selling and buying homes. Once we were suddenly frugal. These days we’re real sophisticated consumers.
You’re welcome to read my other blog The Real Sophisticated Consumer here.
Bamboo Flooring Pros and Cons
When my husband and I were looking to replace the floors in our house, we hadn’t even considered that you could use bamboo as a hardwood flooring. I always thought that flooring had to be wood-wood–you know, from trees. However, when we visited Home Depot…
What is Greige Color
The first time I asked the question, “What is greige color?” was when we were selling a home a few years ago. This was our house at the New Jersey shore. We knew that the whole interior of the home needed a fresh paint job….
What Contingent Means in Real Estate
When it comes to real estate, you may be wondering what contingent means. Perhaps you were looking at home on Realtor or Zillow and saw the word contingent there. The truth is the word contingent has a simple definition. And that is this: when something…
What Not to Fix When Selling a House
Selling your home? Don’t stress about your to-do list of things to fix before selling a house. These are home improvements that aren’t worth doing in today’s real estate market. That’s because you’ll never get your investment back. In a different market, these were the…
How to Create a Black Accent Wall
What are your thoughts on using a black accent wall in your home? I’m always impressed when I see rooms with a wall like this. Why? Because it really stands out and can add a level of drama to an otherwise boring room. I mean,…
Real Estate Words that Sell
Recently, I got to thinking about real estate words that sell versus real estate words that make for an interesting listing. I mean, sometimes it’s appropriate to add buzz words to your real estate listing. Then again, sometimes those buzzy words can work against you….
How to Put a Rug Under a Bed
It wasn’t until we worked with a professional stager that we even knew there were rugs under bed rules. That is, in order to make a bedroom look magazine worthy, there were certain ways and places to put a rug under a bed. She helped…
Horror Movie Houses in Real Life
Growing up on New York’s Long Island, everyone knew our area had one of the most famous horror movie houses of all time. Known as the Amityville House, it was the site of a real-life horror, a murder. Amityville is a real town on Long…
Summer Real Estate Tips
This blog post focuses on summer real estate tips. Why summer? Well, for a few reasons. One, each real estate season is unique. That means that winter real estate is different from spring real estate, which is different from summer real estate? And, two, summer…
Who am I?
I’m Leah Ingram, homeowner seven times over, author of 15 books and journalist, formerly covering real estate for NBC Universal and Parade Magazine.